Joe DiMaggio

DiMaggio, Joe

(Joseph Paul DiMaggio) (dĭmăj`ēō', –mäj`ēō'), 1914–99, American baseball player, b. Martinez, Calif. One of the most charismatic of 20th-century sports figures, "Joltin' Joe" joined the New York Yankees of the American League in 1936 and quickly rose to stardom, winning the league's batting title with a .381 average in his fourth season. In a career interrupted by World War II, the center fielder became the celebrated epitome of grace and humility. In 1939, 1941, and 1947 he was the American League's Most Valuable Player, and in 1941 the "Yankee Clipper" established one of baseball's best-known records by hitting safely in 56 consecutive games. He retired in 1951 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. His quiet heroics and brief marriage (1954) to Marilyn MonroeMonroe, Marilyn,1926–62, American movie actress, b. Los Angeles as Norma Jean Baker or Norma Jeane Mortenson. Raised in orphanages after 1935 and first married at 14, Monroe, who began her career as a pin-up model, became a world-famous sex symbol and, after her death, a.....Click the link for more information. made him an icon of popular culture, although later biographical study has tended to deflate that status to some degree.

Bibliography

See biographies by R. B. Cramer (2000) and J. Charyn (2011); K. Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (2011).

His brother, Dominic DiMaggio, 1917–2009, b. San Francisco, was also a major-league baseball player. Although always in his elder brother's shadow, the "Little Professor" was a talented centerfielder and an aggressive hitter, who began playing pro ball in 1937 and spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox (1940–41, 1946–53). A seven-time All-Star, he had a career average of .298 with the Sox.

Bibliography

See his memoir (1990, with B. Gilbert, repr. 2004).

DiMaggio, (Joseph Paul) Joe

(1914– ) baseball player; born in Martinez, Calif. One of baseball's most graceful players, he spent his entire career as an outfielder for the New York Yankees (1936–51), during which he was named the American League Most Valuable Player three times (1939, 1941, 1947). Although he hit 361 lifetime homeruns and posted a career batting average of .325, he is most remembered for hitting in a record-setting 56 consecutive games in 1941. His brothers, Vince and Dom DiMaggio, also played major league baseball. He was married briefly to actress Marilyn Monroe and appeared in many television commercials after his retirement from baseball. Nicknamed, "Joltin' Joe" and, "The Yankee Clipper," he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1955.

Consider what it was like to have been a center field prospect while New York Yankees Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle were on the job from 1936 into the mid-1960s--exempting World War II service by Joltin' Joe.

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